The polar regions receive an advective heat flux wT from the mixed layer; this water cools, downwells and spreads over the ocean floor, inducing an upward advective heat flux wTp in the one-dimensional model.

Abstract

Worldwide power resources that could be extracted from Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC) plants are estimated with a simple one-dimensional time-domain model of the thermal structure of the ocean. Recently published steady-state results are extended by partitioning the potential OTEC production region in one-degree-by-one-degree “squares” and by allowing the operational adjustment of OTEC operations. This raises the estimated maximum steady-state OTEC electrical power from about 3TW(109kW) to 5TW. The time-domain code allows a more realistic assessment of scenarios that could reflect the gradual implementation of large-scale OTEC operations. Results confirm that OTEC could supply power of the order of a few terawatts. They also reveal the scale of the perturbation that could be caused by massive OTEC seawater flow rates: a small transient cooling of the tropical mixed layer would temporarily allow heat flow into the oceanic water column. This would generate a long-term steady-state warming of deep tropical waters, and the corresponding degradation of OTEC resources at deep cold seawater flow rates per unit area of the order of the average abyssal upwelling. More importantly, such profound effects point to the need for a fully three-dimensional modeling evaluation to better understand potential modifications of the oceanic thermohaline circulation.

Avery, W. H., and Wu, C., 1994, “Renewable Energy From the Ocean—A Guide to OTEC,” in the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory Series in Science and Engineering , J.R.Apel, ed., Oxford University Press, New York.

Nihous, G. C., Syed, M. A., and Vega, L. A., 1989, “Design of a Small OTEC Plant for the Production of Electricity and Fresh Water in a Pacific Island,” "Proc. ASCE International Conference on Ocean Energy Recovery", pp. 207–216.

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